Doctor of Philosophy - Associate Professor of English & Cinema. Interdisciplinary studies in Cinema, Science Fiction, Gothic Fiction and the Environmental Humanities.
Ridley Scott, known for his grandiose cinematic endeavors such as Gladiator (2000) and Kingdom of... more Ridley Scott, known for his grandiose cinematic endeavors such as Gladiator (2000) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005), has built a reputation for producing visually impressive films. Consequently, Napoleon was eagerly awaited as one of the major box office releases in 2023. With a staggering budget of 200 million dollars, the renowned director Ridley Scott, collaborating with screenwriter David Scarpa, and featuring the acting skills of Joaquin Phoenix alongside Vanessa Kirby, set exceptionally high expectations. This review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of Scott’s Napoleon using the classical narrative cinema technique by offering both a historical context and a detailed critique of the film’s characterization, acting, screenplay, and historical accuracy, revealing the extent of its fidelity to historical events.
TOBIDER - International Journal of Social Sciences, 2023
Black Mirror is not only among the most popular but also the most debated science fiction product... more Black Mirror is not only among the most popular but also the most debated science fiction productions. The series, which premiered on the British Channel 4 channel in 2011 and later gained popularity worldwide after being acquired by Netflix, thoroughly explores various themes such as technology, crime and punishment, consumption, ethics, and freedom. Amongst these themes, morality has a central position as morality and moral concerns form the major point of criticism in the production. This article analyzes technologies depicted in Black Mirror from a posthuman scope and their moral aspects from the perspective of Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy. In this context, the article refers to Kant’s categorical imperative. In addition, the notion of immortality depicted in the series is explored from the viewpoint of influential philosophers such as Descartes and Hegel and addressed comparatively with the visions of immortality depicted in the series. To that end, the article specifically concentrates on the most striking episodes of the series namely, “San Junipero”, “White Christmas” and “Black Museum”. These episodes demonstrate various different utopian and dystopian visions of the future combined with posthuman technologies. Thus, besides their technological and economic facets, the study exposes their moral aspects and puts forward particular findings derived from these results, hence revealing the moral implications behind posthuman visions within a postmodern context.
Journal of American Studies of Turkey (JAST), Jun 11, 2022
The Man in the High Castle (1962) is one of Philip K. Dick's most acclaimed and striking novels. ... more The Man in the High Castle (1962) is one of Philip K. Dick's most acclaimed and striking novels. The narrative is set in an alternate reality where the Axis powers have won the Second World War and occupied the United States, dividing the country into three regions: the Nazi ruled greater Reich, the Pacific Japanese States and the neutral zone. As a result of this partition, Americans have become foreign in their own country. This article examines the master-slave dialectic and master-slave morality in Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. The master-slave dialectic is a theory proposed by Hegel in the Phenomenology of Spirit. Hegel outlines a mutual relationship where he assigns specific roles to two parties that engage in a struggle for desire to achieve self-consciousness. In direct connection with the master-slave dialectic is Nietzsche's master-slave morality which was developed upon Hegel's original conception. The thinker describes a binary opposition where particular values have been ascribed to master and slave/servant morality to establish a sustainable and reciprocal relationship. This study aims to analyze Dick's The Man in the High Castle from a philosophical perspective, attempting to expose the master-slave dialectic and morality in the work of fiction and thus revealing the author's covert messages implied in the subtext of the novel, while at the same time comparing and contrasting these with the television adaptation.
Adaptation/film studies receive a growing interest in literature as more scholars take up article... more Adaptation/film studies receive a growing interest in literature as more scholars take up articles to produce authentic research. Due to its interdisciplinary and intertextual nature, adaptation/film studies provide scholars of humanities the means to create preliminary works never published before. This article articulates the importance of adaptation/film studies in literature and calls upon philologists to become actively engaged in the field of adaptation/film studies. Initially, the study defends the view that film is a form of art, no different from works of literature. The article also examines adaptation/film studies with the intermediary function of building bridges between literature and cinema by looking into forerunners and analysing the mutual relationship between these two spheres. The study then scrutinises adaptation/film studies in western academia by exploring the most influential names and tendencies. Finally, the article draws a brief outline of adaptation/film studies in Turkish scholarship and delivers a concise overview of the most productive scholars and their works in this area of research. The research concludes by highlighting the importance of adaptation/film in philology and urging scholars of the humanities to become involved in generating film analyses particularly through the critical lens of literary theory. All in all, the article advocates the necessity and widespread application of film philology in literature.
Post-Theories in Literary and Cultural Studies , 2022
Post-Theories in Literary and Cultural Studies focuses on the shifting paradigms in literary and ... more Post-Theories in Literary and Cultural Studies focuses on the shifting paradigms in literary and cultural studies. Prompted by the changes and problems on the global scale, the last two decades have seen a resurgence of scholarly interest in theories which are more embedded in the social realities and human condition. This volume shows that theory can reinvent theory and re-define criticism according to the demands of the new millennium. In this context, it examines new ways of considering the relation of post-theory to the concepts such as ethics, aesthetics, truth, value, authenticity, human, and reality to understand the mindset of the new century. This volume presents the various suggestions and concerns of post-theoretical studies that reflect the sensibilities of the contemporary social and cultural life. The book is a source of reference to develop an understanding of this change of attitude in post-theoretical studies towards a more directly and sincerely responsive approach to the current problems worldwide, their representations in literature and language, reflections in theory, roots in socio-political domains, and effects on the material reality.
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi (HÜEFD), 2022
Ecocritical theory began to be studied in Turkish academia during the late 1990s by pioneer schol... more Ecocritical theory began to be studied in Turkish academia during the late 1990s by pioneer scholars, Ufuk Özdağ and Serpil Oppermann. However, it was after 2000 that ecocritical studies started to gain popularity among Turkish scholars of the humanities. Although nature-oriented research dates back to earlier times in Turkish academia, research on a wide variety of genres and issues within the scope of ecocriticism created change by a re-evaluation of nature and human relationships. This research aims to provide a comprehensive survey of ecocritical studies of the last two decades, and explore Turkish ecocritical scholarship under two major headings: published books/articles, and unpublished dissertations. The ultimate purpose of this research is to introduce Turkish ecocritical studies to international scholars, to determine the least and most scrutinised ecocritical subfields, and to establish a framework for Turkish researchers of ecocritical theory. This article also strives to become a guide for future Turkish scholars of the humanities who are just stepping into ecocritical theory.
Gregory David Roberts is a contemporary Australian author who had been involved in several crimin... more Gregory David Roberts is a contemporary Australian author who had been involved in several criminal activities and was therefore convicted to prison sentence earlier in his life. In 2003, he published the semi-autobiographical novel Shantaram largely based on his experiences in the Indian city of Bombay. The novel, which became a best-seller around the globe is an astounding account of a westerner’s spiritual voyage in the outskirts of India. Shantaram deals with a great many themes and issues such as ethics, violence and good vs. evil, but the theme which lies at the core of the narrative is the binary opposition between dualism and materialism. While dualism defends the autonomy of the mind/soul over the body, materialism affirms that all living beings are bound to material laws. This article aims to analyse Roberts’ Shantaram through the binary opposition of dualism and materialism, and specifically from a dualistic perspective. As the founder of modern philosophy and dualism, René Descartes’ theories will be applied to the text as opposed to the contrasting philosophy of materialism. In this respect, dualism is compared and contrasted with materialism and physicalism with reference to several influential thinkers who contributed to this thought from Greek antiquity to modern philosophy such as Aristotle, Plato, Lucretius, Kant and George Berkeley. Thus, a Cartesian analysis is implemented to Shantaram in order to expose the dualism emphasised in the subtext of Roberts’ narrative. All in all, the study concludes that Shantaram exhibits depictions of Cartesian dualism through the protagonist’s experiences in the slums of Bombay and determines that dualism overcomes materialism in Roberts’ story as the mind/soul asserts its autonomy over the body and its physical sphere.
Trakya Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi (TÜEF), 2022
Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray has been the subject of analysis from a wide... more Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray has been the subject of analysis from a wide variety of theoretical and thematic perspectives. This study endeavours to conduct a philosophical interpretation of the renowned Wildean work of fiction. In specific, the article aims to carry out a dialectic reading of The Picture of Dorian Gray by concentrating on the protagonist and the path he takes throughout the narrative. To this end, the novel is discussed through the framework of GWF. Hegel's dialectic triad of the thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The theoretical section of the study focuses on the Hegelian dialectic system and scrutinises the three stages with references to various texts and sources. The second part of the study contemplates to establish a dialectic reading of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, identifying these three stages within the story and exposing the vital dialectic choices the protagonist makes along his quest to preserve youth and beauty forever. The article concludes that Dorian Gray exposes the dialectic nature of human beings and highlights the significance of making the right choices through a rational and moral state of mind. In particular, it has been concluded that Dorian experiences the thesis and the antithesis but ultimately gets caught up in the antithesis and does not manage to achieve the synthesis stage, causing his early self-destruction.
Journal of Turkish Language and Literature (TUDED), 2021
Adalet Ağaoğlu’s Fikrimin İnce Gülü is one of the most celebrated novels of contemporary Turkish ... more Adalet Ağaoğlu’s Fikrimin İnce Gülü is one of the most celebrated novels of contemporary Turkish literature. Published in 1976 and dealing with a variety of themes, the novel tells the story of Bayram, a Turkish immigrant worker’s journey from the Turkish border gate to his native village. This study aims to analyse Bayram’s narrative under two major headings: inferiority and alienation. Specifically, the article argues that the ultimate cause of Bayram’s actions is the inferiority complex which, combined with his obsessive commodity fetishism, eventually ends up with his total alienation from society. To this end, the research initially scrutinises the concept of inferiority complex through the window of individual psychology and its founder, Alfred Adler. In addition, the study also examines the notion of alienation with references to several influential thinkers. Thus, the article reveals that Bayram has become the victim of his traumatic childhood, youth experiences and social background, which give rise to his chronic feelings of inferiority. These feelings of inferiority in turn are aggravated by the capitalist system of production, eventually leading to the alienation, extreme disillusionment and isolation of Bayram as an individual. This research concludes that Bayram is an unconscious victim of his alienation and finally completes the cycle to a self-conscious state of mind after being left on his own, desperate and void of meaningful purpose or hope.
Uluslararası Toplumsal Bilimler Dergisi (TOBIDER), 2021
James Graham Ballard was a contemporary British author mostly known for his dystopian works deali... more James Graham Ballard was a contemporary British author mostly known for his dystopian works dealing with climatic disasters, uncanny catastrophes and the negative effects of technological modernity. Ballard’s fourth novel, The Crystal World (1966) tells the unusual story of Edward Sanders, a medical doctor treating leprosy patients in Cameroon. Together with his friends, Sanders encounters a strange phenomenon in the African jungle that slowly turns everything into crystal. This study aims to interpret Ballard’s The Crystal World from the window of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and the notion of anthropocentrism. The theoretical section of the article gives a detailed account of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic referring to various texts and sources. The land ethic proposes a formulation for the preservation of land from the perspective of environmental ethics whereas anthropocentrism strongly insists on the central position of humans in the universe. Specifically, the article argues that through the allegorical narrative, Ballard deconstructs anthropocentric human thought and reveals the immediate necessity for a land ethic by revealing the exploitation of land and the exaltation of human speciesism/chauvinism. To this end, the study examines how Ballard deconstructs anthropocentrism in The Crystal World and implies the necessity for a land ethic, combined with an ecological conscience.
The Purloined Letter" is the third of the three Dupin stories that Edgar A. Poe wrote and publish... more The Purloined Letter" is the third of the three Dupin stories that Edgar A. Poe wrote and published in 1844. Contrary to being a typical example of detective fiction which usually involves an investigation to find out what is being kept hidden, "The Purloined Letter" is rather concerned with finding out what is being kept in plain sight. Dupin's familiarity with logic, math and physics enables him to look at the matter at hand from an exceptionally distinct perspective. Unlike the chief police officer of the Paris Police Department, Dupin firmly believes that the purloined letter has never been concealed at all. To prove his point, he emphasizes the ability to identify with the opponent and draws an analogy from a game of guessing in which one player is expected to make a correct guess about what the other player is thinking of. Dupin also makes a philosophical point regarding the failure of human mind to notice the obvious, which is a result of its tendency to believe that it can find the obvious in minute details. Dupin also believes that the only way to obtain the letter is to purloin it back from the robber who purloined it. And hence he purloins the letter in almost the same way as it was first purloined. The purloining of the letter is mirrored in the re-purloining of it. In the light of all this, this paper aims to discuss and resolve the moral ambiguity which surrounds Dupin's identification of himself with the robber and his consequent purloining of the letter in exactly the same way as the robber has previously done in order to recover the purloined letter from the hands of the robber.
Uluslararası Dil Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi (UDEKAD), 2021
Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus is one of the most celebrated novels of the 19 th century a... more Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus is one of the most celebrated novels of the 19 th century and of speculative fiction. The novel represents a philosophical journey to the inner depths of the human experience. While the novel focuses on a variety of issues in Frankenstein acts and eventually leading to his catastrophic downfall. In the theoretical framework, the Don Quixote. concept. To this end, the study compares Victor the conclusion that both are equivalent characters whose actions are void of moral concerns. Finally, the article aims to expose that irrationality and immorality are the consequences of quixotic idealism which result in disastrous consequences.
International Journal of Human Studies (IJHS), 2021
Scottish playwright Stef Smith's Human Animals (2016) recounts the fictional story of a governmen... more Scottish playwright Stef Smith's Human Animals (2016) recounts the fictional story of a government exterminating all animals in London with the pragmatic pursuit of building commercial construction sites on their natural habitats. In line with recent trends of thought, dramatic texts are getting more engaged with different natures of the relationship between human animals and non-human animals. In this context, animal studies posit a focal place in the analysis of Smith's contemporary play, Human Animals. Animal studies take into account the interconnections between humans and animals, thereby making it possible to problematise the concepts of anthropocentrism and speciesism in works of literature. This study aims to analyse Stef Smith’s Human Animals as an example by using critical animal studies perspectives with an emphasis on the essentialist human-animal divide. In a more specific context, the article reveals the impact of anthropocentrism through a case study that exemplifies humanity’s vicious plans to eradicate all non-human beings for the sake of profit and personal interest. Stef Smith presents different characters which embody disparate viewpoints and exposes the anthropocentric nature of humanity. Smith’s portrayal of a dystopian setting not only aims at criticising anthropocentric line of thought but also exposes humanity’s tendencies towards speciesism.
Journal of Human and Social Sciences (JOHASS), 2021
James Graham Ballard was a contemporary British novelist who published a wide variety of works ra... more James Graham Ballard was a contemporary British novelist who published a wide variety of works ranging from climate fiction to transgressive fiction. "The Ultimate City" (1976) is one of Ballard's short stories that portrays a dystopian vision where a utopian urban experiment transforms into a catastrophe. The story tells the attempt of the protagonist, Halloway and his company to reanimate a city that was abandoned years ago due to oil depletion. Halloway aims to bring the city back to life through the limited amount of oil left in the city, only to confront chaos and disorder. Using the concepts of Ecotopia and petroculture, this article aims to explore the ways in which oil shapes and destroys modern societies and possible alternatives to this predicament in Ballard's work. To this end, after a theoretical discussion of these concepts, the article examines the ecotopian features in the ecological community in the text and compares it to the consumerist culture of the metropolis; and later addresses the problem of oil that is an essential component of modern urban life. This part of the article reveals the degree of dependence on oil and the transformative power associated with it through examples from the story. The article argues that "The Ultimate City" is a premonition to the reader concerning the current energy politics that may culminate in a total disaster unless necessary steps are taken.
Bilimkurguyu Anlamak kitabının içinde bilimkurgu türlerini tanıtan ve örneklerinin analizini yapa... more Bilimkurguyu Anlamak kitabının içinde bilimkurgu türlerini tanıtan ve örneklerinin analizini yapan çalışmalarının yanı sıra bilimkurguya farklı kuramsal perspektiflerden okuma önerileri getiren çalışmalara da rastlamak mümkün. Bu okumalardan birini de Cenk Tan, “Tüketicilikten Yamyamlığa Uzanan bir Modernite Eleştirisi: Yeni Dalga BK ve J. G. Ballard’ın Gökdelen Romanı” adlı yazısında sunuyor. Tan, yeni dalga akımını etraflıca ele aldıktan sonra Ballard’ın Gökdelen’ini Nietzsche ve Russell’ın güç/iktidar ve Weber’in statüye ilişkin görüşleri üzerinden sınıfsal çatışma-ötekileştirme dolayımında değerlendiriyor.
Caryl Churchill is one of Britain’s most prominent and talented contemporary playwrights. Since t... more Caryl Churchill is one of Britain’s most prominent and talented contemporary playwrights. Since the 1960s, the author has published thirty plays dealing with a wide variety of subjects from political matters to gender issues and ecological problems. Amongst the many issues and social problems of Churchill’s dramatic oeuvre, natural concerns and environmental catastrophes stand out as the dramatist displays significant awareness towards issues concerning the destruction of nature. To that end, particular themes related to the Anthropocene and Capitalocene come forward in Churchill’s ecological plays. Briefly defined as the era of observable human impact on Earth, the Anthropocene was coined in 2000 and reformulated by scholars various times. The most notable reinterpretation of the Anthropocene resulted in the coining of the Capitalocene which argues that this epoch was largely shaped by the detrimental effects of capitalism on the human society and naturally, on Earth as a whole. This article’s main purpose is to expose specific depictions of the Capitalocene in Churchill’s Not not not not not enough oxygen and Far Away to reveal why and how these depictions are presented in the author’s plays. Therefore, the study demonstrates Churchill’s theatre as a theatre of the Anthropocene and reveals the dramatist’s critique of capitalism in order to raise awareness towards environmental issues in the British society and public opinion.
John Christopher's Empty World (1977) is an apocalyptic novel which depicts a fatal pandemic thro... more John Christopher's Empty World (1977) is an apocalyptic novel which depicts a fatal pandemic through the eyes of adolescent children. In specifc, the story is presented through the perspective of fifteen-year-old Neil Miller who loses his family and heads off to the streets of London to seek company in his quest for survival in a desolated city. Neil finally meets Lucy and Billie, two girls his age and the children then decide to move in together. This study aims to analyse Christopher's Empty World from a philosophical, in particular, Nietzschean point of view. Friedrich Nietzsche is a philosopher who had an immense impact in all areas of the social sciences and the humanities. This article thereby discusses three Nietzschean doctrines: the will to power, the eternal recurrence and amor fati. All these three notions are interrelated in Nietzsche's cosmological theory and his metaphysical hypothesis. Thus, the ultimate purpose of this article is to reveal how and to what extent Nietzschean doctrines are manifested in John Christopher's Empty World. These manifestations will be discussed with relevant references to the text in association with the setting and prevalent themes of the novel.
Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, 2021
Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019) is an origin story which not only portrays a psychological drama but ... more Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019) is an origin story which not only portrays a psychological drama but also forms a good example of a detailed character study case. The film embodies two main layers which are psychological and social. Within the context of the psychological layer, the viewers witness the gradual metamorphosis of a mentally ill person into an evil villain. This article aims to analyse Todd Phillips’ Joker from a Jungian and Nietzschean perspective. By interpreting Arthur Fleck’s mental condition through the window of Jungian archetypes, the article reveals that Arthur experiences an intense inner struggle against his shadow, which he ultimately loses. His efforts to resist these attacks using his persona, ego, and self are in vain. To that end, Jung’s views are interconnected with Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of nihilistic delusions which are referred to with an overview of Nietzsche’s nihilism. In addition, the nihilistic delusions are associated with the cotard syndrome and the notion of depersonalization within the field of psychiatry. The study also exposes the common ground between Nietzsche and Jung by exploring the interactions in specific periods of their lives. Thus, it has been concluded that Arthur’s nihilistic delusions are the ultimate cause of the events leading to the supremacy of the shadow in Joker.
Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2021, 9: 199-220, 2021
Paul Verhoeven’ın 1987 yapımı RoboCop filmi, çok katmanlı sosyo-politik yapısıyla popüler kültür ... more Paul Verhoeven’ın 1987 yapımı RoboCop filmi, çok katmanlı sosyo-politik yapısıyla popüler kültür ikonu olmayı başarmış bir bilimkurgu yapımıdır. RoboCop, geniş yel-pazede sosyal meselelere değinen, dönemin popüler bilimkurgu örneklerinden biri-dir. Bu çalışma, RoboCop sinema filmini üç temel başlık olan: dehümanizasyon, teknokapitalist korporatizm ve posthümanizm başlıkları altında tartışmaktadır. Ma-kalenin ilk bölümünde Alex Murphy’nin yaşamış olduğu dehümanizasyon süreci ve bunların filmde taşıdığı önem Hannah Arendt’in fikirleriyle aydınlatılmaktadır. Aka-binde Alex Murphy’nin, RoboCop’a dönüşümü sonrasında, onun kendi içinde giriştiği mücadele kapsamında tekrar Murphy kimliğini benimsemesi ve yaşamış olduğu üç evreli dönüşüm, filme yapılan göndermelerle ayrıntılı biçimde irdelenmektedir. Ma-kalenin son bölümünde ise RoboCop’un merkezinde yer alan teknokapitalist korpo-ratizm olgusu ile bağlantı kurularak, bu olgunun yapımda sahip olduğu önem ve RoboCop siborgu ile ilişkisi açığa çıkarılmaktadır. Bu kapsamda, çeşitli filozof ve kuramcılardan yararlanılmıştır. Sonuç bölümünde ise RoboCop’un posthümanizm bağlamında ortaya koyduğu insanlık eleştirisi ve ona alternatif olarak sunulan siborg figürü, yapımcı Verhoeven tarafından filmin alt metninde yapılan göndermelerle açığa çıkarılmaktadır.
J.G. Ballard's The Concentration City and Billennium are both short stories that depict an utterl... more J.G. Ballard's The Concentration City and Billennium are both short stories that depict an utterly dystopian vision about the future of urban development. The Concentration City provides a glimpse of an overgrown, gigantic city with no limits whereas Billennium presents a perspective of the burden of living in an overpopulated society. Both stories are projections of the megalopolis as coined by philosophers Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford. These thinkers have outlined the notion of megalopolis as the final stage of development before necropolis, city of the dead. This paper explores how and in what ways Ballard's vision of megalopolis is reflected in The Concentration City and Billennium. To that end, the effects of megalopolis on the individual, nature, society and government institutions are revealed. In addition, the paper also demonstrates that human liberty is restricted on all accounts as a consequence of the conditions created by the megalopolis. Finally, as put forward by Geddes and Mumford, regionalism is proposed as an alternative to prevent excessive urban development which is destined to lead to megalopolis and ultimately, collective downfall.
Ridley Scott, known for his grandiose cinematic endeavors such as Gladiator (2000) and Kingdom of... more Ridley Scott, known for his grandiose cinematic endeavors such as Gladiator (2000) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005), has built a reputation for producing visually impressive films. Consequently, Napoleon was eagerly awaited as one of the major box office releases in 2023. With a staggering budget of 200 million dollars, the renowned director Ridley Scott, collaborating with screenwriter David Scarpa, and featuring the acting skills of Joaquin Phoenix alongside Vanessa Kirby, set exceptionally high expectations. This review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of Scott’s Napoleon using the classical narrative cinema technique by offering both a historical context and a detailed critique of the film’s characterization, acting, screenplay, and historical accuracy, revealing the extent of its fidelity to historical events.
TOBIDER - International Journal of Social Sciences, 2023
Black Mirror is not only among the most popular but also the most debated science fiction product... more Black Mirror is not only among the most popular but also the most debated science fiction productions. The series, which premiered on the British Channel 4 channel in 2011 and later gained popularity worldwide after being acquired by Netflix, thoroughly explores various themes such as technology, crime and punishment, consumption, ethics, and freedom. Amongst these themes, morality has a central position as morality and moral concerns form the major point of criticism in the production. This article analyzes technologies depicted in Black Mirror from a posthuman scope and their moral aspects from the perspective of Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy. In this context, the article refers to Kant’s categorical imperative. In addition, the notion of immortality depicted in the series is explored from the viewpoint of influential philosophers such as Descartes and Hegel and addressed comparatively with the visions of immortality depicted in the series. To that end, the article specifically concentrates on the most striking episodes of the series namely, “San Junipero”, “White Christmas” and “Black Museum”. These episodes demonstrate various different utopian and dystopian visions of the future combined with posthuman technologies. Thus, besides their technological and economic facets, the study exposes their moral aspects and puts forward particular findings derived from these results, hence revealing the moral implications behind posthuman visions within a postmodern context.
Journal of American Studies of Turkey (JAST), Jun 11, 2022
The Man in the High Castle (1962) is one of Philip K. Dick's most acclaimed and striking novels. ... more The Man in the High Castle (1962) is one of Philip K. Dick's most acclaimed and striking novels. The narrative is set in an alternate reality where the Axis powers have won the Second World War and occupied the United States, dividing the country into three regions: the Nazi ruled greater Reich, the Pacific Japanese States and the neutral zone. As a result of this partition, Americans have become foreign in their own country. This article examines the master-slave dialectic and master-slave morality in Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. The master-slave dialectic is a theory proposed by Hegel in the Phenomenology of Spirit. Hegel outlines a mutual relationship where he assigns specific roles to two parties that engage in a struggle for desire to achieve self-consciousness. In direct connection with the master-slave dialectic is Nietzsche's master-slave morality which was developed upon Hegel's original conception. The thinker describes a binary opposition where particular values have been ascribed to master and slave/servant morality to establish a sustainable and reciprocal relationship. This study aims to analyze Dick's The Man in the High Castle from a philosophical perspective, attempting to expose the master-slave dialectic and morality in the work of fiction and thus revealing the author's covert messages implied in the subtext of the novel, while at the same time comparing and contrasting these with the television adaptation.
Adaptation/film studies receive a growing interest in literature as more scholars take up article... more Adaptation/film studies receive a growing interest in literature as more scholars take up articles to produce authentic research. Due to its interdisciplinary and intertextual nature, adaptation/film studies provide scholars of humanities the means to create preliminary works never published before. This article articulates the importance of adaptation/film studies in literature and calls upon philologists to become actively engaged in the field of adaptation/film studies. Initially, the study defends the view that film is a form of art, no different from works of literature. The article also examines adaptation/film studies with the intermediary function of building bridges between literature and cinema by looking into forerunners and analysing the mutual relationship between these two spheres. The study then scrutinises adaptation/film studies in western academia by exploring the most influential names and tendencies. Finally, the article draws a brief outline of adaptation/film studies in Turkish scholarship and delivers a concise overview of the most productive scholars and their works in this area of research. The research concludes by highlighting the importance of adaptation/film in philology and urging scholars of the humanities to become involved in generating film analyses particularly through the critical lens of literary theory. All in all, the article advocates the necessity and widespread application of film philology in literature.
Post-Theories in Literary and Cultural Studies , 2022
Post-Theories in Literary and Cultural Studies focuses on the shifting paradigms in literary and ... more Post-Theories in Literary and Cultural Studies focuses on the shifting paradigms in literary and cultural studies. Prompted by the changes and problems on the global scale, the last two decades have seen a resurgence of scholarly interest in theories which are more embedded in the social realities and human condition. This volume shows that theory can reinvent theory and re-define criticism according to the demands of the new millennium. In this context, it examines new ways of considering the relation of post-theory to the concepts such as ethics, aesthetics, truth, value, authenticity, human, and reality to understand the mindset of the new century. This volume presents the various suggestions and concerns of post-theoretical studies that reflect the sensibilities of the contemporary social and cultural life. The book is a source of reference to develop an understanding of this change of attitude in post-theoretical studies towards a more directly and sincerely responsive approach to the current problems worldwide, their representations in literature and language, reflections in theory, roots in socio-political domains, and effects on the material reality.
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi (HÜEFD), 2022
Ecocritical theory began to be studied in Turkish academia during the late 1990s by pioneer schol... more Ecocritical theory began to be studied in Turkish academia during the late 1990s by pioneer scholars, Ufuk Özdağ and Serpil Oppermann. However, it was after 2000 that ecocritical studies started to gain popularity among Turkish scholars of the humanities. Although nature-oriented research dates back to earlier times in Turkish academia, research on a wide variety of genres and issues within the scope of ecocriticism created change by a re-evaluation of nature and human relationships. This research aims to provide a comprehensive survey of ecocritical studies of the last two decades, and explore Turkish ecocritical scholarship under two major headings: published books/articles, and unpublished dissertations. The ultimate purpose of this research is to introduce Turkish ecocritical studies to international scholars, to determine the least and most scrutinised ecocritical subfields, and to establish a framework for Turkish researchers of ecocritical theory. This article also strives to become a guide for future Turkish scholars of the humanities who are just stepping into ecocritical theory.
Gregory David Roberts is a contemporary Australian author who had been involved in several crimin... more Gregory David Roberts is a contemporary Australian author who had been involved in several criminal activities and was therefore convicted to prison sentence earlier in his life. In 2003, he published the semi-autobiographical novel Shantaram largely based on his experiences in the Indian city of Bombay. The novel, which became a best-seller around the globe is an astounding account of a westerner’s spiritual voyage in the outskirts of India. Shantaram deals with a great many themes and issues such as ethics, violence and good vs. evil, but the theme which lies at the core of the narrative is the binary opposition between dualism and materialism. While dualism defends the autonomy of the mind/soul over the body, materialism affirms that all living beings are bound to material laws. This article aims to analyse Roberts’ Shantaram through the binary opposition of dualism and materialism, and specifically from a dualistic perspective. As the founder of modern philosophy and dualism, René Descartes’ theories will be applied to the text as opposed to the contrasting philosophy of materialism. In this respect, dualism is compared and contrasted with materialism and physicalism with reference to several influential thinkers who contributed to this thought from Greek antiquity to modern philosophy such as Aristotle, Plato, Lucretius, Kant and George Berkeley. Thus, a Cartesian analysis is implemented to Shantaram in order to expose the dualism emphasised in the subtext of Roberts’ narrative. All in all, the study concludes that Shantaram exhibits depictions of Cartesian dualism through the protagonist’s experiences in the slums of Bombay and determines that dualism overcomes materialism in Roberts’ story as the mind/soul asserts its autonomy over the body and its physical sphere.
Trakya Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi (TÜEF), 2022
Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray has been the subject of analysis from a wide... more Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray has been the subject of analysis from a wide variety of theoretical and thematic perspectives. This study endeavours to conduct a philosophical interpretation of the renowned Wildean work of fiction. In specific, the article aims to carry out a dialectic reading of The Picture of Dorian Gray by concentrating on the protagonist and the path he takes throughout the narrative. To this end, the novel is discussed through the framework of GWF. Hegel's dialectic triad of the thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The theoretical section of the study focuses on the Hegelian dialectic system and scrutinises the three stages with references to various texts and sources. The second part of the study contemplates to establish a dialectic reading of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, identifying these three stages within the story and exposing the vital dialectic choices the protagonist makes along his quest to preserve youth and beauty forever. The article concludes that Dorian Gray exposes the dialectic nature of human beings and highlights the significance of making the right choices through a rational and moral state of mind. In particular, it has been concluded that Dorian experiences the thesis and the antithesis but ultimately gets caught up in the antithesis and does not manage to achieve the synthesis stage, causing his early self-destruction.
Journal of Turkish Language and Literature (TUDED), 2021
Adalet Ağaoğlu’s Fikrimin İnce Gülü is one of the most celebrated novels of contemporary Turkish ... more Adalet Ağaoğlu’s Fikrimin İnce Gülü is one of the most celebrated novels of contemporary Turkish literature. Published in 1976 and dealing with a variety of themes, the novel tells the story of Bayram, a Turkish immigrant worker’s journey from the Turkish border gate to his native village. This study aims to analyse Bayram’s narrative under two major headings: inferiority and alienation. Specifically, the article argues that the ultimate cause of Bayram’s actions is the inferiority complex which, combined with his obsessive commodity fetishism, eventually ends up with his total alienation from society. To this end, the research initially scrutinises the concept of inferiority complex through the window of individual psychology and its founder, Alfred Adler. In addition, the study also examines the notion of alienation with references to several influential thinkers. Thus, the article reveals that Bayram has become the victim of his traumatic childhood, youth experiences and social background, which give rise to his chronic feelings of inferiority. These feelings of inferiority in turn are aggravated by the capitalist system of production, eventually leading to the alienation, extreme disillusionment and isolation of Bayram as an individual. This research concludes that Bayram is an unconscious victim of his alienation and finally completes the cycle to a self-conscious state of mind after being left on his own, desperate and void of meaningful purpose or hope.
Uluslararası Toplumsal Bilimler Dergisi (TOBIDER), 2021
James Graham Ballard was a contemporary British author mostly known for his dystopian works deali... more James Graham Ballard was a contemporary British author mostly known for his dystopian works dealing with climatic disasters, uncanny catastrophes and the negative effects of technological modernity. Ballard’s fourth novel, The Crystal World (1966) tells the unusual story of Edward Sanders, a medical doctor treating leprosy patients in Cameroon. Together with his friends, Sanders encounters a strange phenomenon in the African jungle that slowly turns everything into crystal. This study aims to interpret Ballard’s The Crystal World from the window of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and the notion of anthropocentrism. The theoretical section of the article gives a detailed account of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic referring to various texts and sources. The land ethic proposes a formulation for the preservation of land from the perspective of environmental ethics whereas anthropocentrism strongly insists on the central position of humans in the universe. Specifically, the article argues that through the allegorical narrative, Ballard deconstructs anthropocentric human thought and reveals the immediate necessity for a land ethic by revealing the exploitation of land and the exaltation of human speciesism/chauvinism. To this end, the study examines how Ballard deconstructs anthropocentrism in The Crystal World and implies the necessity for a land ethic, combined with an ecological conscience.
The Purloined Letter" is the third of the three Dupin stories that Edgar A. Poe wrote and publish... more The Purloined Letter" is the third of the three Dupin stories that Edgar A. Poe wrote and published in 1844. Contrary to being a typical example of detective fiction which usually involves an investigation to find out what is being kept hidden, "The Purloined Letter" is rather concerned with finding out what is being kept in plain sight. Dupin's familiarity with logic, math and physics enables him to look at the matter at hand from an exceptionally distinct perspective. Unlike the chief police officer of the Paris Police Department, Dupin firmly believes that the purloined letter has never been concealed at all. To prove his point, he emphasizes the ability to identify with the opponent and draws an analogy from a game of guessing in which one player is expected to make a correct guess about what the other player is thinking of. Dupin also makes a philosophical point regarding the failure of human mind to notice the obvious, which is a result of its tendency to believe that it can find the obvious in minute details. Dupin also believes that the only way to obtain the letter is to purloin it back from the robber who purloined it. And hence he purloins the letter in almost the same way as it was first purloined. The purloining of the letter is mirrored in the re-purloining of it. In the light of all this, this paper aims to discuss and resolve the moral ambiguity which surrounds Dupin's identification of himself with the robber and his consequent purloining of the letter in exactly the same way as the robber has previously done in order to recover the purloined letter from the hands of the robber.
Uluslararası Dil Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi (UDEKAD), 2021
Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus is one of the most celebrated novels of the 19 th century a... more Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus is one of the most celebrated novels of the 19 th century and of speculative fiction. The novel represents a philosophical journey to the inner depths of the human experience. While the novel focuses on a variety of issues in Frankenstein acts and eventually leading to his catastrophic downfall. In the theoretical framework, the Don Quixote. concept. To this end, the study compares Victor the conclusion that both are equivalent characters whose actions are void of moral concerns. Finally, the article aims to expose that irrationality and immorality are the consequences of quixotic idealism which result in disastrous consequences.
International Journal of Human Studies (IJHS), 2021
Scottish playwright Stef Smith's Human Animals (2016) recounts the fictional story of a governmen... more Scottish playwright Stef Smith's Human Animals (2016) recounts the fictional story of a government exterminating all animals in London with the pragmatic pursuit of building commercial construction sites on their natural habitats. In line with recent trends of thought, dramatic texts are getting more engaged with different natures of the relationship between human animals and non-human animals. In this context, animal studies posit a focal place in the analysis of Smith's contemporary play, Human Animals. Animal studies take into account the interconnections between humans and animals, thereby making it possible to problematise the concepts of anthropocentrism and speciesism in works of literature. This study aims to analyse Stef Smith’s Human Animals as an example by using critical animal studies perspectives with an emphasis on the essentialist human-animal divide. In a more specific context, the article reveals the impact of anthropocentrism through a case study that exemplifies humanity’s vicious plans to eradicate all non-human beings for the sake of profit and personal interest. Stef Smith presents different characters which embody disparate viewpoints and exposes the anthropocentric nature of humanity. Smith’s portrayal of a dystopian setting not only aims at criticising anthropocentric line of thought but also exposes humanity’s tendencies towards speciesism.
Journal of Human and Social Sciences (JOHASS), 2021
James Graham Ballard was a contemporary British novelist who published a wide variety of works ra... more James Graham Ballard was a contemporary British novelist who published a wide variety of works ranging from climate fiction to transgressive fiction. "The Ultimate City" (1976) is one of Ballard's short stories that portrays a dystopian vision where a utopian urban experiment transforms into a catastrophe. The story tells the attempt of the protagonist, Halloway and his company to reanimate a city that was abandoned years ago due to oil depletion. Halloway aims to bring the city back to life through the limited amount of oil left in the city, only to confront chaos and disorder. Using the concepts of Ecotopia and petroculture, this article aims to explore the ways in which oil shapes and destroys modern societies and possible alternatives to this predicament in Ballard's work. To this end, after a theoretical discussion of these concepts, the article examines the ecotopian features in the ecological community in the text and compares it to the consumerist culture of the metropolis; and later addresses the problem of oil that is an essential component of modern urban life. This part of the article reveals the degree of dependence on oil and the transformative power associated with it through examples from the story. The article argues that "The Ultimate City" is a premonition to the reader concerning the current energy politics that may culminate in a total disaster unless necessary steps are taken.
Bilimkurguyu Anlamak kitabının içinde bilimkurgu türlerini tanıtan ve örneklerinin analizini yapa... more Bilimkurguyu Anlamak kitabının içinde bilimkurgu türlerini tanıtan ve örneklerinin analizini yapan çalışmalarının yanı sıra bilimkurguya farklı kuramsal perspektiflerden okuma önerileri getiren çalışmalara da rastlamak mümkün. Bu okumalardan birini de Cenk Tan, “Tüketicilikten Yamyamlığa Uzanan bir Modernite Eleştirisi: Yeni Dalga BK ve J. G. Ballard’ın Gökdelen Romanı” adlı yazısında sunuyor. Tan, yeni dalga akımını etraflıca ele aldıktan sonra Ballard’ın Gökdelen’ini Nietzsche ve Russell’ın güç/iktidar ve Weber’in statüye ilişkin görüşleri üzerinden sınıfsal çatışma-ötekileştirme dolayımında değerlendiriyor.
Caryl Churchill is one of Britain’s most prominent and talented contemporary playwrights. Since t... more Caryl Churchill is one of Britain’s most prominent and talented contemporary playwrights. Since the 1960s, the author has published thirty plays dealing with a wide variety of subjects from political matters to gender issues and ecological problems. Amongst the many issues and social problems of Churchill’s dramatic oeuvre, natural concerns and environmental catastrophes stand out as the dramatist displays significant awareness towards issues concerning the destruction of nature. To that end, particular themes related to the Anthropocene and Capitalocene come forward in Churchill’s ecological plays. Briefly defined as the era of observable human impact on Earth, the Anthropocene was coined in 2000 and reformulated by scholars various times. The most notable reinterpretation of the Anthropocene resulted in the coining of the Capitalocene which argues that this epoch was largely shaped by the detrimental effects of capitalism on the human society and naturally, on Earth as a whole. This article’s main purpose is to expose specific depictions of the Capitalocene in Churchill’s Not not not not not enough oxygen and Far Away to reveal why and how these depictions are presented in the author’s plays. Therefore, the study demonstrates Churchill’s theatre as a theatre of the Anthropocene and reveals the dramatist’s critique of capitalism in order to raise awareness towards environmental issues in the British society and public opinion.
John Christopher's Empty World (1977) is an apocalyptic novel which depicts a fatal pandemic thro... more John Christopher's Empty World (1977) is an apocalyptic novel which depicts a fatal pandemic through the eyes of adolescent children. In specifc, the story is presented through the perspective of fifteen-year-old Neil Miller who loses his family and heads off to the streets of London to seek company in his quest for survival in a desolated city. Neil finally meets Lucy and Billie, two girls his age and the children then decide to move in together. This study aims to analyse Christopher's Empty World from a philosophical, in particular, Nietzschean point of view. Friedrich Nietzsche is a philosopher who had an immense impact in all areas of the social sciences and the humanities. This article thereby discusses three Nietzschean doctrines: the will to power, the eternal recurrence and amor fati. All these three notions are interrelated in Nietzsche's cosmological theory and his metaphysical hypothesis. Thus, the ultimate purpose of this article is to reveal how and to what extent Nietzschean doctrines are manifested in John Christopher's Empty World. These manifestations will be discussed with relevant references to the text in association with the setting and prevalent themes of the novel.
Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, 2021
Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019) is an origin story which not only portrays a psychological drama but ... more Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019) is an origin story which not only portrays a psychological drama but also forms a good example of a detailed character study case. The film embodies two main layers which are psychological and social. Within the context of the psychological layer, the viewers witness the gradual metamorphosis of a mentally ill person into an evil villain. This article aims to analyse Todd Phillips’ Joker from a Jungian and Nietzschean perspective. By interpreting Arthur Fleck’s mental condition through the window of Jungian archetypes, the article reveals that Arthur experiences an intense inner struggle against his shadow, which he ultimately loses. His efforts to resist these attacks using his persona, ego, and self are in vain. To that end, Jung’s views are interconnected with Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of nihilistic delusions which are referred to with an overview of Nietzsche’s nihilism. In addition, the nihilistic delusions are associated with the cotard syndrome and the notion of depersonalization within the field of psychiatry. The study also exposes the common ground between Nietzsche and Jung by exploring the interactions in specific periods of their lives. Thus, it has been concluded that Arthur’s nihilistic delusions are the ultimate cause of the events leading to the supremacy of the shadow in Joker.
Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2021, 9: 199-220, 2021
Paul Verhoeven’ın 1987 yapımı RoboCop filmi, çok katmanlı sosyo-politik yapısıyla popüler kültür ... more Paul Verhoeven’ın 1987 yapımı RoboCop filmi, çok katmanlı sosyo-politik yapısıyla popüler kültür ikonu olmayı başarmış bir bilimkurgu yapımıdır. RoboCop, geniş yel-pazede sosyal meselelere değinen, dönemin popüler bilimkurgu örneklerinden biri-dir. Bu çalışma, RoboCop sinema filmini üç temel başlık olan: dehümanizasyon, teknokapitalist korporatizm ve posthümanizm başlıkları altında tartışmaktadır. Ma-kalenin ilk bölümünde Alex Murphy’nin yaşamış olduğu dehümanizasyon süreci ve bunların filmde taşıdığı önem Hannah Arendt’in fikirleriyle aydınlatılmaktadır. Aka-binde Alex Murphy’nin, RoboCop’a dönüşümü sonrasında, onun kendi içinde giriştiği mücadele kapsamında tekrar Murphy kimliğini benimsemesi ve yaşamış olduğu üç evreli dönüşüm, filme yapılan göndermelerle ayrıntılı biçimde irdelenmektedir. Ma-kalenin son bölümünde ise RoboCop’un merkezinde yer alan teknokapitalist korpo-ratizm olgusu ile bağlantı kurularak, bu olgunun yapımda sahip olduğu önem ve RoboCop siborgu ile ilişkisi açığa çıkarılmaktadır. Bu kapsamda, çeşitli filozof ve kuramcılardan yararlanılmıştır. Sonuç bölümünde ise RoboCop’un posthümanizm bağlamında ortaya koyduğu insanlık eleştirisi ve ona alternatif olarak sunulan siborg figürü, yapımcı Verhoeven tarafından filmin alt metninde yapılan göndermelerle açığa çıkarılmaktadır.
J.G. Ballard's The Concentration City and Billennium are both short stories that depict an utterl... more J.G. Ballard's The Concentration City and Billennium are both short stories that depict an utterly dystopian vision about the future of urban development. The Concentration City provides a glimpse of an overgrown, gigantic city with no limits whereas Billennium presents a perspective of the burden of living in an overpopulated society. Both stories are projections of the megalopolis as coined by philosophers Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford. These thinkers have outlined the notion of megalopolis as the final stage of development before necropolis, city of the dead. This paper explores how and in what ways Ballard's vision of megalopolis is reflected in The Concentration City and Billennium. To that end, the effects of megalopolis on the individual, nature, society and government institutions are revealed. In addition, the paper also demonstrates that human liberty is restricted on all accounts as a consequence of the conditions created by the megalopolis. Finally, as put forward by Geddes and Mumford, regionalism is proposed as an alternative to prevent excessive urban development which is destined to lead to megalopolis and ultimately, collective downfall.
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas: A Multitude of Iconic Signs, 2014
Semiotic elements pertaining to Marxist and anti-consumerist theory that are embedded in David Mi... more Semiotic elements pertaining to Marxist and anti-consumerist theory that are embedded in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas forms the main topic of this thesis. Thanks to its perfectly constructed postmodern structure and its coherent themes, Cloud Atlas could be regarded as one of the most striking and thought-provoking novels of the 21st century British fiction. Although the novel consists of six stories that are completely disparate in terms of content, setting, location and genre, David Mitchell ultimately manages to create a unified whole; a grand story conveying a general message out of these six different narratives. Chapter one presents Marxist literary theory in detail with its most prominent theorists and philosophers such as Marx, Gramsci, Althusser and Terry Eagleton. Closely connected to Marxism, this chapter also scrutinizes consumerism from a Marxist perspective by referring to texts and theories from philosophers Jean Baudrillard and Zygmunt Bauman. Chapter two contains a detailed analysis of semiotics as a study and approach to literary texts. The study of semiotics is presented with the founding philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce and his successors Charles Morris, Ferdinand de Saussure and finally the contemporary author Umberto Eco. The third and last chapter begins with a general semiotic analysis of Cloud Atlas through which the connection between its semiotic structure and its general themes and ideology is revealed. In the same chapter, the specific semiotic signs that help contribute to the novel’s Marxist-consumerist ideology are exposed. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the semiotic characteristics in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas in terms of Marxist literary theory, mainly within the scope of the theme of oppression and struggle for change. To that end, this study aims to expose the specific semiotic signs that are embedded within the novel.
An Ecocritical Study of J.G. Ballard's Climate Fiction Novels, 2019
This study focuses on an ecocritical analysis of J.G. Ballard’s climate fiction novels of the ear... more This study focuses on an ecocritical analysis of J.G. Ballard’s climate fiction novels of the early 1960s. Ecocritical perspectives, social ecological in specific have been utilized to shed light on the selected three novels of J.G. Ballard—The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World and The Drought. In contrast with the widespread scholarly research of surreal and psychoanalytic criticism in Ballard’s latter fiction, this study contemplates to analyse the author’s very first post-apocalyptic, climate fiction novels through the window of ecocritical theory. These three novels of the renowned British author are commonly considered as primary examples of the sub-genre of climate fiction. This study therefore proposes to analyse Ballard’s post-apocalyptic works of climate fiction by applying theories related to the school of ecocriticism, second wave of ecocriticism in particular. The study thereby aims to criticise Ballard’s oeuvre from the specific position of social ecology. Thus, the research reveals how Ballard dismantles and takes on western anthropocentrism in The Wind from Nowhere, the author’s first work of fiction, often dismissed by many including himself as an experimental work of fiction. Furthermore, the study also intends to criticise The Drowned World from a social ecofeminist viewpoint. Finally, it aspires to expose the social ecological motives behind The Drought, Ballard’s post-apocalyptic vision of a world running out of water. The study refers to a wide variety of scholars and theoreticians but mainly relies on the theories of Murray Bookchin and Karen J. Warren. Focusing on many different issues within ecocritical thought, the study insists on the scrutiny of social ecological motives in Ballard’s trilogy of climate fiction.
20. Yüzyıl Amerikan Romanı Üzerine İncelemeler, 2025
20. yüzyıl Amerikan romanının en önemli eserlerine dair yetkin akademik çalışmaları bir araya get... more 20. yüzyıl Amerikan romanının en önemli eserlerine dair yetkin akademik çalışmaları bir araya getiren bu çalışma; modernist estetik ve varoluşçuluktan postmodern teoriye kadar uzanan çeşitli eleştirel yaklaşımlar aracılığıyla Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler, John Steinbeck, Richard Wright, Carson McCullers, Saul Bellow, John Okada, Toni Morrison ve Paul Auster gibi dönemin en etkili yazarlarının tematik derinlikleri ve anlatı yeniliklerine güncel bakış açıları sunmaktadır. Bellek ve kimlik gibi Amerikan kültürüne ait temel kavramların hem ana akım hem etnik yazında ele alınması ve kısa roman, sert polisiye, gotik ve grotesk türlerini örneklendiren eserlerin incelenmesiyle 20. yüzyıl Amerikan romanının çeşitliliğini ve karmaşıklığını vurgulayan bu kitap, akademisyenler, öğrenciler ve Amerikan edebiyatına ilgi duyanlar için değerli bir kaynak teşkil etmektedir. Prof. Dr. Hasine Şen Karadeniz İstanbul Üniversitesi
20. Yüzyıl Amerikan Romanı Üzerine İncelemeler, 2025
Yirminci Yüzyıl Amerikan Romanı başlıklı bu derleme, modernizmden postmodernizme uzanan süreçte A... more Yirminci Yüzyıl Amerikan Romanı başlıklı bu derleme, modernizmden postmodernizme uzanan süreçte Amerikan edebiyatının önde gelen romanlarını derinlemesine ele alarak yeni eleştirel yaklaşımlar sunmaktadır. Bellek, gerçekçilik karşıtlığı, ekosofi, varoluşçuluk ve kimlik gibi kavramlar üzerinden yirminci yüzyıl Amerikan romanının toplumsal ve estetik katmanları incelenmekte; eserlerin dönemin siyasal ve felsefi düşünceleriyle ilişkisi analiz edilmektedir. Bu çözümlemeler, Amerikan romanını hem estetik bir yapı hem de toplumsal dönüşümleri yansıtan bir araç olarak ele alarak, edebiyatseverler ve araştırmacılar için zengin bir bakış açısı sunmaktadır.
Science Fantasy: Critical Explorations in Fiction and Film, 2024
In the initial chapter, Cenk Tan scrutinizes Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End” as a work of sc... more In the initial chapter, Cenk Tan scrutinizes Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End” as a work of science fantasy, employing the critical framework of (hard) determinism, free will, and predestination. Tan argues that, positioned as an advocate of determinism, “Childhood’s End” presents a compelling argument against the existence of free will. According to Clarke’s narrative, humans lack the capacity for true free will, and the ability to make choices does not necessarily affirm the existence of free will. This perspective implies that individuals are unable to break free from a destructive cycle, conveying a pessimistic message that suggests people are destined to be perpetually reliant on determinism.
Science Fantasy: Critical Explorations in Fiction and Film, 2024
Chasing Aristotle’s “probable impossibilities”, Science Fantasy: Critical Explorations in Fiction... more Chasing Aristotle’s “probable impossibilities”, Science Fantasy: Critical Explorations in Fiction and Film scrutinizes science fantasy, a hybrid genre that draws from both science fiction and fantasy. It delves into how science fantasy serves as a medium to shape the present and build a better future through memories and explores uncharted territories where science and imagination intersect. The eleven chapter of this volume challenge preconceptions and invites contemplation on the harmonious interplay between science fiction and the fantastical.
Eco-Concepts - Critical Reflections in Emerging Ecocritical Theory and Ecological Thought, 2024
This chapter explores ecocide as an eco-concept from its origin to its current state with selecte... more This chapter explores ecocide as an eco-concept from its origin to its current state with selected cases from around the globe. It goes without saying that ecocide is one of the most tangible, urgent and substantial eco-concepts that has been on the agenda over the last two decades. Despite numerous efforts from scholars and environmentalists, ecocide has not yet been recognized as an international crime. This chapter highlights that the international ecocide law is a moral obligation and unless it is established, ecocidal activities will proceed terrorizing natural areas around the globe. Therefore, it proposes to take further initiative to push the authorities towards the urgent legislation of international ecocide law.
Eco-Concepts - Critical Reflections in Emerging Ecocritical Theory and Ecological Thought, 2024
Eco-Concepts: Critical Reflections in Emerging Ecocritical Theory and Ecological Thought offers a... more Eco-Concepts: Critical Reflections in Emerging Ecocritical Theory and Ecological Thought offers an intellectual journey through the ever-evolving landscapes of environmental discourse. This thought-provoking volume brings together contributors from international scholarship to scrutinize and illuminate the contemporary trends reshaping our understanding of the natural environment. From the intricate interplay of rising ecocritical theories like restoration and empirical ecocriticism to the nuanced shifts in the reimagining of ecological concepts, this book unravels the complexities of our relationship with the natural sphere. This scholarly collection serves as a compass, guiding readers through the uncharted territories of environmental scholarship or revisiting existing study through fresh critical perspectives. Eco-Concepts strives to become an essential source of reference for academics, students, and individuals seeking an in-depth exploration of the innovative notions influencing the trajectory of discussions on ecology.
J. G. BALLARD Modernite ve Postmodernitenin Tekinsiz Yazarı, 2023
Beton Ada (Concrete Island, 1974) romanını ele alan Cenk Tan modern kentsel peyzajın birey üzerin... more Beton Ada (Concrete Island, 1974) romanını ele alan Cenk Tan modern kentsel peyzajın birey üzerindeki etkilerine eğilmektedir. Tan, romanın ana karakteri Maitland’ın yaşadığı çevre ve sosyal ilişkiler dolayımında deneyimlediği yabancılaşma sürecini ve absürd kavramını Albert Camus, G.W.F. Hegel ve Erich Fromm gibi düşünürlerin fikirleri etrafında irdelemektedir.
J. G. BALLARD Modernite ve Postmodernitenin Tekinsiz Yazarı, 2023
J. G. Ballard'ın Edebi Portresi: Geçmişi, Yazarlığa Giden Süreci, Yazınına ait Özellikleri, Yeni ... more J. G. Ballard'ın Edebi Portresi: Geçmişi, Yazarlığa Giden Süreci, Yazınına ait Özellikleri, Yeni Dalga Bilimkurgu ve Çağdaş İngiliz Edebiyatındaki Konumu hakkında okuyucuları bilgilendirmek amacıyla ortaya konmuştur.
Encyclopedia of New Populism and Responses in the 21st Century , Sep 27, 2023
Populism and populist discourse form a significant and recurrent element that manifests an essent... more Populism and populist discourse form a significant and recurrent element that manifests an essential role in dystopian film and fiction. The genre of dystopian film and fiction have often been characterized for their depiction of narratives based on authoritarian and/or totalitarian leadership. This chapter provides an overview of populism and populist discourse in dystopian film and fiction by identifying some of the major titles in Western cinema and literature. The chapter concludes that dystopian film and fiction serve as an effective premonition to raise consciousness against anti-democratic rule.
Post-Theories in Literary and Cultural Studies, 2022
This chapter, centering upon the pivotal term "Anthropocene", lays out various interpretations of... more This chapter, centering upon the pivotal term "Anthropocene", lays out various interpretations of the concept from an ecocentric worldview. The chapter highlights that all recent endeavours signal the coming of a new era characterized by various effective efforts of restoration. These efforts are expected to create a difference in the struggle against global climate change and hopefully slow down anthropogenic climate change. Thus, it is anticipated and projected that restoration will become the face of a new epoch of optimism and compensation.
BİLİMKURGUYU ANLAMAK: Alt Türlere Eleştirel Yaklaşımlar, 2021
Bilimkurguyu Anlamak; son yıllarda edebiyat, sinema ve popüler kültürde ön plana çıkan bilimkurgu... more Bilimkurguyu Anlamak; son yıllarda edebiyat, sinema ve popüler kültürde ön plana çıkan bilimkurgu türüne dair Türkçe yayımlanmış akademik içerikli kitapların sınırlı sayıda olmasından yola çıkarak alandaki boşluğu doldurmak ve Türkçeye bilimkurgu eleştirisi bağlamında önemli bir eser kazandırmak amacıyla ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Bilimkurguyu alt türler temelinde ele alan bu kitap, bilimkurgunun kısa tarihçesi ile başlayıp türün ütopya/distopya kavramları ile olan ilişkisinden zaman yolculuğuna, siberpunktan yeni dalga akımına, alternatif tarihten uzay operasına kadar pek çok alt türü ayrıntılı biçimde ve eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla irdelemektedir. Böylece bilimkurguyu sadece sınıflandırmakla kalmayıp bilimkurgunun alt türlerine yakından bakma ve türlerin doğasını daha iyi keşfedebilme imkânı sunmaktadır. Okurları yerli bilimkurgu incelemeleriyle de buluşturan kitap, bilimkurgu hakkında süregelen tabu ve ön yargıları ortadan kaldırma niyetinin yanı sıra türün derinliğini sosyal bilimlerin penceresinden ve metin merkezli eleştiriler ışığında gözler önüne sermektedir.
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Papers by Cenk TAN
awaited as one of the major box office releases in 2023. With a staggering budget of 200 million dollars, the renowned director Ridley Scott, collaborating with screenwriter David Scarpa, and featuring the acting skills of Joaquin Phoenix alongside Vanessa Kirby, set exceptionally high expectations. This review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of Scott’s Napoleon using the classical narrative cinema technique by offering both a historical context and a detailed critique of the film’s characterization, acting, screenplay, and historical accuracy, revealing the extent of its fidelity to historical events.
awaited as one of the major box office releases in 2023. With a staggering budget of 200 million dollars, the renowned director Ridley Scott, collaborating with screenwriter David Scarpa, and featuring the acting skills of Joaquin Phoenix alongside Vanessa Kirby, set exceptionally high expectations. This review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of Scott’s Napoleon using the classical narrative cinema technique by offering both a historical context and a detailed critique of the film’s characterization, acting, screenplay, and historical accuracy, revealing the extent of its fidelity to historical events.
Mitchell ultimately manages to create a unified whole; a grand story conveying a general message out of these six different narratives.
Chapter one presents Marxist literary theory in detail with its most
prominent theorists and philosophers such as Marx, Gramsci, Althusser and Terry Eagleton. Closely connected to Marxism, this chapter also scrutinizes consumerism from a Marxist perspective by referring to texts and theories from philosophers Jean Baudrillard and Zygmunt Bauman. Chapter two contains a detailed analysis of semiotics as a study and approach to literary texts. The study of semiotics is presented with the founding philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce and his successors
Charles Morris, Ferdinand de Saussure and finally the contemporary author Umberto Eco. The third and last chapter begins with a general semiotic analysis of Cloud Atlas through which the connection between its semiotic structure and its general themes and ideology is revealed. In the same chapter, the specific semiotic signs that help contribute to the novel’s Marxist-consumerist ideology are exposed.
The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the semiotic characteristics in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas in terms of Marxist literary theory, mainly within the scope of the theme of oppression and struggle for change. To that end, this study aims to expose the specific semiotic signs that are embedded within the novel.
Prof. Dr. Hasine Şen Karadeniz
İstanbul Üniversitesi